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How can someone put a lien on a property when they didn't do any work to it?

I have a boat in Washington state that I'm having restored. I went through a person out there to do the contracting with wooden boat builders from that area. The boat in question is a 42 foot twin masted ketch so it's fairly large. We're moving the boat from the property it's been stored on and have paid that property owner for the space and his time. Another person who has no business relationship to me or the boat wants to put a lien on it to satisfy monies they feel they are owed from a previous job that the contractor had. Can this happen or is it totally unrelated?

1 reply

Nov 26, 2019

There are many types of liens, but all liens have specific requirements that must be met in order to be valid. While some involuntary liens do not require the liner to have any direct relationship with the owner of the property, these types of liens arise from work performed on the specific property. Since liens are very powerful tools, they are restricted by process and formal requirements. In most cases this means that if a person is owed money for a completely unrelated job, a lien cannot be claimed on property not related to that specific job. A lien against property for work done can only arise from work done or materials furnished to the specific property to be liened. A lien against property for storage only arises from the storage of the specific property to be liened. If a judgment is obtained against a party, a judgment lien can potentially be claimed against all of the judgment debtor's property - but this would be pursuant to a lawsuit,.

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